Guilty in violent Verve condo break & enter
Castanet
Nicholas Johansen
01 July 2017


Below is a news report of a frightening violent home invasion at a condo apartment. Besides being incredibly stupid, this robbery shows how condo residents leave themselves open to crime.

1. A resident allows the two thugs to enter the condo building.
2. The condo owner leaves his unit door unlocked.
—Condomadness

A two-month road trip to Kelowna ended in six serious convictions for a young man from Winnipeg.

Alexander Laramee was found guilty Friday morning of six charges stemming from a violent robbery at the Verve apartment buildings on the night of Nov. 21, 2015.

Laramee, 22-years-old at the time, had joined several people on a two-month road trip to Kelowna.

The four headed west, visiting Calgary, Banff, and finally Kelowna. The party then returned to Calgary for some time, before coming back to Kelowna on November 21.

They partied that evening, before one of the people on the trip drove Laramee and another man to the apartment building on Yates Road.

The motive
“(The driver) said that a female friend had stayed with (the resident of a condo unit) at some point and had seen large sums of money and marijuana in his apartment and before he went home, Mr. Laramee was going to join (the other man) to get the money,” said Justice Heather McNaughton Friday.

Let in by resident
The two men were let into the building by a resident who was walking by.

Door unlocked
Donning black face masks and gloves, they entered the unit's unlocked door.

The owner of the apartment was inside sitting on a massage chair. Two women, residents of the building, were on a couch.

Smashed a large fish tank
Laramee's partner in the robbery ran into the room, pulled out a hammer and smashed a large fish tank, spilling 35 gallons of water on the floor.

The owner of the condo jumped from the chair and charged at the hammer-wielding man and the two men wrestled on the floor.

Laramee said he “entered panic mode” and repeatedly punched one of the women, who had been yelling for help, and put his hand over her mouth.

Meanwhile, the owner of the unit, who was trained in jiu-jitsu, attempted to secure the other man's arms with his legs, but he managed to escape, while hitting the owner several times on the head. The owner was bleeding heavily and required multiple stitches.

Water leak
The water from the fish tank seeped into the rooms below, prompting the downstairs tenants to come upstairs and check what was going on. Police were called to the scene.

At this point, Laramee said he had a “reality check,” and stopped trying to restrain the women. Police found him sitting on an ottoman when they arrived.

While Laramee admitted to the bulk of the events, he said he felt that the man that drove them to the house would cause harm to himself or his family if he didn't carry out the robbery.

One week into the trip, Laramee had witnessed this man kick and beat his friend's German shepherd with a lawn chair. When Laramee attempted to comfort the dog, Laramee was threatened.

Despite his argument that he was “under duress” when he committed the robbery, Justice McNaughton said Laramee appeared to have been enjoying himself over the two-month trip, and nothing had stopped him from returning home if he had felt threatened.

The man who orchestrated the robbery has had a warrant out for his arrest for the past year and he has yet to be apprehended.

Laramee's convictions included breaking and entering, attempted robbery, assault, assault with a weapon, masking one's face during an offence and unlawful confinement.

He has no prior criminal record.

He will be back in court in late August to determine a date for sentencing.


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